STORRS -- When the teams met last month in Memphis, UConn was in desperate need of a win in the American Athletic Conference after a 0-2 start to league play.

While the 24th-ranked Huskies (19-5, 7-4 AAC) are not in such dire straits this time around, completing the season sweep of the No. 20 Tigers (19-5, 8-3) would give them a boost in the standings. UConn enters Saturday's game at the XL Center (noon, ESPN) a game behind Memphis and SMU for third place in the conference.

"It's always important to defend our homecourt," UConn coach Kevin Ollie said. "We have to defend and protect. I don't care if that's USF. I don't care if it's Cincinnati. I don't care if it's Memphis. I don't care if that's anybody -- we have to defend our homecourt to be the best team we can possibly be, and then we have to go steal some on the road like we already have done. ¦

"We take care of games, we move up."

In the first meeting with Memphis, the Huskies took care of business with DeAndre Daniels (23 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks) being a key contributor in the 83-73 win. The Tigers' 6-foot-9 big man Shaq Goodwin ran into early foul trouble, and some of it stemmed from trying to deal with the 6-9 Daniels, who has the ability to pull his game outside of the paint and make himself more difficult to defend.

Goodwin finished with 10 points, but just two rebounds and one block in 26 minutes

"He's a key every game," Ollie said. "I know they are going to probably devise something to stop him because he did a really good job against them up in Memphis. I don't know if that's switching or things they are going to do to make adjustments, but I know coach (Josh) Pastner is a good coach and he's going to come up with some adjustments against DeAndre. Now it's up to us to counter those adjustments and get DeAndre into some of his sweet spots where he can go to work."

Daniels' sweet spot includes 3-point range, where he made 4 of 5 attempts in the first meeting, but he also was effective inside to help UConn win the rebound battle 34-27, including 20-8 in the second half .

"I feel like they are going to come out more aggressive because they are going to want revenge," said Daniels, who has averaged 14.5 points while hitting at a 50-percent clip on 3-pointers (15-for-30) and posting a team-high 7.4 rebounds over the last eight games. "We beat them at home, so they are going to come out real aggressive. We need to play UConn basketball and match their intensity."

The Huskies have struggled to do that at times against some of the better teams in the league. UConn is 8-2 over the last 10 games, but both losses occurred when the Huskies failed to match the opposition's intensity. Louisville dominated from the opening tip in a 76-64 win at Gampel Pavilion, but in the 63-58 loss at Cincinnati, the Bearcats didn't take over until the second half.

"It's a real important game," UConn senior Niels Giffey said. "We already played them on the road and got that win, so just for the standings and looking ahead for the tournament, too, we just want to make a statement with the game. We want to move on and have a continued positive trend. We're just trying to move up and keep it going."

The homecourt has worked in UConn's favor most of the season, with the lone loss at the XL Center coming against non-league Stanford when the Huskies couldn't protect a second-half lead. Memphis is 4-1 in the AAC on the road, with the lone loss coming to SMU on Feb. 1.